The IRFU deserves credit for getting behind a new national initiative giving schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to participate in a newly developed form of adapted tag rugby.
The project has come out of the Xcessible Youth Sport initiative, a coming together of national governing bodies in sport and the local sports partnership network run under the umbrella of the Irish Sports Council.
It is being run by the CARA National Adapted Physical Activity Centre who have cemented the lasting benefit of the programme by training over 100 development staff and volunteers within the IRFU on disability inclusion.
The games will be organised on a weekly basis starting on Monday, January 19th and running through to April 10th.
“The IRFU’s values promote rugby as an inclusive sport and our partnership with CARA will open the game up to more people and increase the number of kids engaging in physical activity and enjoying the fun and other benefits rugby can deliver,” said Scott Walker, IRFU Director of Rugby Development.
“We are pleased that 11 clubs have already signed up to the eight-week CARA programme, and while many of these clubs had already engaged in disability rugby programmes we hope that the new school-club link can deliver more sustainable opportunities for kids with disabilities to experience and enjoy Tag rugby with the local rugby club.”
Sport has a duty to be inclusive, a responsibility taken seriously among the major and where possible the minority sports throughout the country.
This backs up the work being done through special Olympics in areas of intellectual disability and Paralympics Ireland in the physical arena, and is a measure of how sport can be a crucial enabler in changing the way society views those who are different from the norm.
RTÉ Sports Presenter Joanne Cantwell is a Patron for the initiative and was on hand at this week’s launch alongside students Craig Smith and Kian Plunkett and Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the TD with perhaps the longest official job title in Ireland as Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality and Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht with special responsibility for Equality, New Communities and Culture.
“How fitting it is giving that the Rugby World Cup is on this year and the high hopes we all have for the Ireland team that the Xcessible Inclusive Youth Sport Initiative is now including the sport of rugby and giving everyone a chance to take part in this great team sport,” she said.
The Irish Sports Council and the Tralee Institute of Technology where CARA is housed are both full members of the Sport for Business community.
Image Credit: Sportsfile
